Rebuilding Things
by conventgirlvampire
Summary: Santana and Brittany are good together. Rachel knows that. It's why she wants to make sure that they're okay.


**Title:** Rebuilding Things

**Characters/Pairings:** Pezberry friendship with Brittana and don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it Faberry (it's more friendship than anything else but whatevs)

**Word Count:** 1,588

**Spoilers:** Up to Mash Off

**Summary:** Santana and Brittany are good together. Rachel knows that. It's why she wants to make sure that they're okay.

**A/N:**This is old and I don't know why I even tried to write it anymore. I just remember wanting to do a Rachel observing Brittana thing and it turned into this. Quality's not up to what I'd usually like but it's publishable, I think. Characters are most likely highly OoC though but who cares. Read and review please.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own it. Never did.

* * *

**Rebuilding Things**

She watches their mash-up silently, trying to ignore Finn without looking like she is ignoring him. He really is insensitive sometimes and she cannot help but still be mad at him for outing Santana. All he seems to care about is his reputation, even after all this time, and more often than not she finds herself wondering why she is with him.

Observing them, she is surprised by what she sees. It is not that they are not good – they are and she would even go so far as to say that her mother has created, yet again, a team far above them – but she sees something that she probably should not see. It makes her feel guilty for intruding on something so personal but she cannot bring herself to look away from it.

The Troubletones have little emotional connection to the songs – little that she knows of anyway; she barely knows any of these girls and the ones that she does know are barely speaking to her at that moment. Santana and Brittany, however, are a different matter altogether.

Brittany is, as usual, flawless as she moves, something that Rachel has always noticed. She moves with an unearthly grace that always draws her in and right now there is an undefined fierceness to her steps that soften only when she and Santana are near each other. She wonders briefly if this is what attracts the fiery, passionate girl to the dancer, this small subtle way of lending her support, strength and comfort to the seemingly bitchy girl.

Then there is Santana, Santana who scares her and intrigues her at the same time. She seems so strong all the time, so in control, that seeing her like this is unnerving. The control is gone and she is all over the place, scrambling to find herself again amidst the chaos. She wonders if anyone else sees it but the only person she can think of who might understand is Quinn.

The vibration of her phone alerts her to a new message in her inbox. Normally she would ignore it while enjoying the performance but she feels compelled to look, knowing that only one person is brazen enough to text her now. Surreptitiously pulling out her phone, she quickly navigates to the message.

Quinn: _She's better than you right now but she's breaking apart right in front of us._

She knows that Quinn is not being malicious right now because they both know that she is right. At this moment, Santana really is better than her. There is a raw power in her voice that allows her to let all of her emotions loose in a way that Rachel has not been able to since before Prom. At the same time, however, she can see the girl's life crumbling around her even as she holds on to Brittany for dear life.

It does not surprise her when Santana slaps Finn in the end. If she is honest, she wants to slap him too but, as per Quinn's request after the girl told her what her boyfriend had said, she feigns ignorance, choosing instead to let the scene play out.

Finn offers her a ride home and she accepts, only acting like she wants it now. They spend the ride in silence until the end when they are in her driveway.

"So," he begins with that smile he always thinks is so charming, "do you want to hang out since it's Friday and all?"

"You…want to hang out?" Her anger at the boy is just below the surface and she tries so hard to control it.

"Yeah. I mean, I could get your dad to look at my face then maybe we could –"

"No," she says, not wanting to believe that he could be so callous and nonchalant about what he did. "No. I'm going to get out of this truck and go to Santana's. You are going to go home and hope that there will be someone who wants you because we are done."

She opens the door without waiting for a response, not even bothering to go into the house and change before heading in the direction of Santana's house. When she gets there it is to a scene she had hoped never to see.

"Come to gloat Berry?" Santana asks from her perch on one of the many boxes that surrounded her and her Cheerios duffel bag. "Or are you here to witness the fall of the great Santana Lopez yourself?"

"At least they gave you time to pack up everything," she says in an effort to avoid any of the insults that Santana might aim at her. She knows that it is how Santana copes but she really is not in the mood to deal with her bitchy side right now. "Where's Brittany?"

"On her way," the other girl replies. I dropped her home before coming here. Where's the asshole?"

"Noah? He's off at Temple with Nana Puckerman."

"The boy's been a softie ever since Babygate and you but I wasn't talking about him." She smiles at Rachel's attempt to lighten things up but It did not reach her eyes. "I meant Finn."

"Oh." Rachel pulls one of the boxes closer to Santana and sits. "He's probably at home violating innocent objects. I don't really know since I just broke up with him. Maybe we can call Kurt and ask him?"

"You did what now StarBerry?" Santana smirks, an eyebrow raised in a way reminiscent of Quinn. She wonders if that is part of the Cheerios' training. "Mind repeating that again?"

"One, don't call me that. Two, I broke up with him."

Before Santana can say anything to that a car pulls up with Brittany at the wheel. The two girls smile as she joins them and together they begin to pack Santana's things. Rachel thinks that it is almost like the summer again when they would go to the lake together. She misses those days.

When they are finished, she hesitates. She wants to make sure that her girls are okay but she does not want to intrude. They are so happy together she is sure to feel like a third wheel.

"Come on, Rach," Brittany says, making her decision for her, "we're going to have a movie night tonight in our room and you're coming with us."

"I-I'm not sure…" she says, smiling despite her reluctance. The first time she had heard the blonde say "our room" instead of "my room" she had been confused but now she knows better. The Pierces have long accepted Santana as one of their own and she is there often enough that Brittany's room really is Brittany and Santana's room.

"Oh come on Rachie," Santana bats her eyelashes at her and she can swear that her knees go weak. "B's asking you to join us. You don't want to make her cry now, do you?"

She shakes her head good-naturedly and climbs into the back of the car. She has always been attracted to the fairer sex and she hates that Santana uses that against her on the rare occasion that she can even consider saying no to Brittany.

They spend the car ride catching up. She is surprised to learn that they actually miss her now that they know how far and hard Shelby works them but she is happy that they have a chance to be free that they never had in the New Directions. They in turn are surprised to learn that she holds no resentment towards them. It is true that she misses them but she would rather see them happy and on an opposing team instead of miserable and on her own team.

When they get to Brittany's house fifteen minutes later it is as if they had never left summer behind them. They are laughing and talking as they walk up the stairs together, Rachel in the arms of both Brittany and Santana. Everyone thinks that Brittany is the only person Santana willingly protects but she knows better.

Just as they reach the top of the stairs Santana stops them and turns to Rachel. Without a word she launches herself into the smaller girl, sobbing into her shirt.

"I-I'm just so happy that you're h-here right now Rachie. You have no idea how lonely we were that last week of summer when you went back to Finncompetent."

"San," Brittany warns as she pulls her off of the singer, "be nice."

"I am being nice," is the sobbed reply, "There was so much more that I could have said about him."

"All too true," Rachel mutters as she leads them into the now familiar bedroom only for all of them to crash into a stop in the doorway.

"W-what are you doing here Quinn?" she squeals. "I-I mean –"

"I know what you mean Rachel," the blonde cuts her off. "I just wanted to check on these too. How did they take it S?"

"How do you think?" Santana asks bitterly. "The only upside to this fucking situation is that I get to spend more time with Britt."

Rachel smiles to herself as she sits down and watches Santana and Quinn argue. Maybe later she will lash out and try to hurt everyone around her. Maybe she will come to regret not letting her parents know sooner. Right now with her friends and her love around her, though, there was no denying that Santana is happy and Rachel swears to somehow protect that.


End file.
